Light Ale in the 1970s

Time to look at some Light Ales in more detail. That most unfashionable of styles.

There’s not a great deal of variation in the gravities: only just over 3º. Which isn’t a great surprise in beers of such a low gravity. Though there’s a way larger spread in ABV, due to hugely differing degrees of attenuation: from 66% to 91%.

This leaves alcohol levels varying from 2.6% ABV to 3.9%. Which, considering the beers were a similar price, means some were way better value than others. With the weakest being barely intoxicating.

A lacking of consistency is also evident in the hopping rates. The highest, 7.5 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) in the Adnams example, is Almost double that of Eldridge Pope’s beer. Though that isn’t totally reflected in the IBU level.

Speaking of which, the values in the table are calculated with brewing software and so should not be taken as gospel, more a general indication. As there are too many unknown variables in some brews, such as the variety and age of the hops.

Similar caution should be taken of the colours, most of which, again, are calculated via brewing software. Only the Boddington and Truman values were taken from the brewing record. 

Light Ale 1968 - 1984
Year	Brewer	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	colour	IBU
1977	Adnams	LBA	1032.0	1011.0	2.78	65.63%	7.56	0.81	22	24
1971	Boddington	Bod	1032.5	1003.0	3.90	90.77%	5.71	0.90	13	28
1984	Eldridge Pope	BAK	1032.7	1005.0	3.66	84.75%	4.00	0.54	24	25
1968	Fullers	LA	1032.2	1010.2	2.90	68.13%	6.08	0.86	22	30
1972	Shepherd Neame	LA	1029.4	1009.5	2.63	67.65%	5.19	0.66	35	16
1969	Truman	LK	1030.7	1004.7	3.44	84.68%	5.32	0.63	21	17
	Average		1031.6	1007.2	3.22	76.93%	5.64	0.73	22.8	23.3
Sources:
Adnams brewing record held at the brewery.
Boddington brewing record held at Manchester Central Library, document number M693/405/134.
Eldridge Pope brewing record.
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery.
Shepherrd Neame brewing book held at the brewery, document number 1971 H-5O5.
Truman brewing record held by Derek Prentice.

Let's Brew - 1879 William Younger 50/-

As it's getting close to the end of the year, time for something seasonal. And what could be more Christmasy than a watery Scottish beer?

The Scots brewed to a much larger range of gravities than English brewers. From super strong to super watery.

You might have found beers with gravities as low as 1040º in the English countryside, but not in London. A small provincial brewery wouldn’t have been brewing stuff at Imperial strength as well. Younger spanned the both. From the modestly-strengthed drinking Ales of the sticks, to the headiest beers of the capital.

At the lower end of the Shilling Ales, this would have been considered a Table Beer. More of a refreshment than an intoxicant. It’s a very straightforward beer, with a reasonable bitterness for its strength. 

1879 William Younger 50/-
pale malt	8.25 lb	100.00%
Cluster 90 min	1.00 oz
Goldings 20 min	1.00 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.75 oz
OG	1036
FG	1007
ABV	3.84
Apparent attenuation	80.56%
IBU	35
SRM	4
Mash at	154º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	105 minutes
pitching temp	59º F
Yeast	WLP028 Edinburgh Ale

The above is an excerpt from my award-winning book on Scottish brewing:

Which is also available in Kindle form:

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Barley Wine sugars 1970 - 1982

There are so many sugars that I’ve split them into two tables. This is pretty typical of UK brewing in the 1970s. With all types of specialist sugars still being in use.

Let’s start with the “normal” sugars. That is, ones where I know what the hell they are.

Starting with the most common: malt extract. This turns up a lot in 20th-century recipes. Usually in very small quantities. Presumably, for extra enzymes. Something brewers seemed to be particularly paranoid about. Perhaps because they no longer used malt made from North American barley, which contained more enzymes.

A dark sugar like No. 3 invert is no surprise in a dark beer like Tally Ho. More so, in Golden Pride. Again, I think, on account f the parti-gyling. Caramel only shows up in the two dark versions, other than a minute quantity in Stingo Gold.

Then we have glucose in Golden Pride and fructose in Tally Ho. Both there because, well, they were the sugars that the breweries used in general.

Having fun? Well, we haven’t finished the sugars yet. Now we have the ones for which I have no fucking clue.

Five of the beggars. None of them in multiple beers. CWA I at least know was an enzymatic syrup. Yet another attempt at boosting enzymes. Not really anything I can say about the rest. 

Barley Wine sugars 1970 - 1982
Year	Brewer	Beer	malt extract	no. 3 sugar	caramel	glucose	fructose
1977	Adnams	Tally Ho		6.29%	0.87%		3.15%
1971	Watney	Yorkshire Stingo	3.20%		0.50%
1981	Eldridge Pope	Hardy Ale
1982	Eldridge Pope	Goldie
1968	Fullers	Golden Pride	0.69%	2.31%		0.93%
1970	Higson	Stingo Gold	3.48%		0.04%
1971	Watney	Export Gold	3.00%
1973	Whitbread	Gold Label
Sources:
Adnams brewing record held at the brewery.
Eldridge Pope brewing record.
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery.
Boddington brewing record held at Manchester Central Library, document number M693/405/134.
Watney Man Quality Manual
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/09/141.
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

Barley Wine proprietary sugars 1970 - 1982
Year	Brewer	Beer	PEX	CWA	DS	SLS	Fermax
1977	Adnams	Tally Ho
1971	Watney	Yorkshire Stingo					13.00%
1981	Eldridge Pope	Hardy Ale
1982	Eldridge Pope	Goldie
1968	Fullers	Golden Pride	1.62%
1970	Higson	Stingo Gold		3.48%	4.35%
1971	Watney	Export Gold					2.00%
1973	Whitbread	Gold Label				21.41%
Sources:
Adnams brewing record held at the brewery.
Eldridge Pope brewing record.
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery.
Boddington brewing record held at Manchester Central Library, document number M693/405/134.
Watney Man Quality Manual
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/09/141.
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

Barley Wine grists 1970 - 1982

The recipes for Barley Wine were pretty diverse. A total of five different malts were used, including three different base malts: pale, mild and lager. Both f the beers using the latter had the word “gold” in their names: Export Gold and Gold Label.

After the base malts, the most common malt was crystal, appearing in three beers. A bit surprised to see it in Hardy Ale. As with Golden Pride, I’m sure that its presence can be explained by the fact that it was parti-gyled with Bitter.

I’ll be honest with you: I’m not sure what form the wheat was in the Eldridge Pope beers. The brewing records aren’t very specific. It could have been flaked or even just simple flour.

Most examples have a malt content of 80% or more. The exception being Gold Label, with just 70% malt.

No shock that flaked maize is the most popular adjunct. Given how beloved it was of UK brewers. The only other unmalted grain was a tiny amount of roast barley in Yorkshire Stingo. Obviously there for colour. Something which the majority of the beers, being pale in colour, didn’t require. 

Barley Wine grists 1970 - 1982
Year	Brewer	Beer	pale malt	mild malt	lager malt	crystal malt	wheat malt	total malt	flaked maize	roast barley
1977	Adnams	Tally Ho		84.97%		4.72%		89.69%
1971	Watney	Yorkshire Stingo	83.00%					83.00%		0.30%
1981	Eldridge Pope	Hardy Ale	59.67%		26.52%	4.97%	8.84%	100.00%
1982	Eldridge Pope	Goldie	92.59%				7.41%	100.00%
1968	Fullers	Golden Pride	77.78%			2.08%		79.86%	14.58%
1970	Higson	Stingo Gold	80.84%					80.84%	7.82%
1971	Watney	Export Gold			90.00%				5.00%
1973	Whitbread	Gold Label			69.70%			69.70%	8.88%
Sources:
Adnams brewing record held at the brewery.
Eldridge Pope brewing record.
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery.
Boddington brewing record held at Manchester Central Library, document number M693/405/134.
Watney Man Quality Manual
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/09/141.
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1966 Boddington Best Mild

Now here’s a big change: another Mild has appeared. Which is slightly odd. My guess would be that it happened in the middle of the 1950s.

The recipe is near identical to XX. There’s just a little more pale malt, a little less caramel and no black malt in Best Mild. Unsurprisingly, it’s a paler beer.

I can remember Boddington Mild not really being dark, but half dark. Though, compared to their pale Bitter, it did appear dark. Now I can see what’s happened. They brewed a Dark Mild then when they introduced a Best Mild made it pale. Which was usually the way it worked: Ordinary Mild dark, Best Mild pale. Then at some point, probably in the 1970s, Boddington dropped their Ordinary Mild. 

1966 Boddington Best Mild
pale malt	5.25 lb	71.33%
crystal malt 80 L	0.75 lb	10.19%
enzymic malt	0.25 lb	3.40%
malt extract	0.33 lb	4.48%
No. 3 invert sugar	0.75 lb	10.19%
caramel 1000 SRM	0.03 lb	0.41%
Fuggles 120 min	0.75 oz
Goldings 30 min	0.75 oz
OG	1033.5
FG	1003.5
ABV	3.97
Apparent attenuation	89.55%
IBU	22
SRM	13
Mash at	147º F
Sparge at	162º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	62º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1318 London ale III (Boddingtons)

The above is an excerpt from my overly detailed look at post-war UK brewing, Austerity!

https://www.lulu.com/shop/ronald-pattinson/austerity/paperback/product-1mkrq4zg.html

Pubs and work in the 1970s

Two things which nowadays may have little connection – unless you work in hospitality – but back in the 1970s were often quite closely entwined. Especially on Fridays.

Even when I worked in the brewery, I nipped out for a pint a couple of times. Even though I had free beer on tap in the “cellar”. Why? To meet up with my mate Henry and have a couple of pints in the Wing Tavern. Oh, why pay for beer? Because it was Barnsley Bitter. Nectar of the gods.

Obviously, most days I got stuck into the free Mild. But not too enthusiastically. No more than a couple of pints. I was so responsible back then. And wasn’t too keen on crippling myself with the heavy machinery I was operating.

While I was briefly working in an arms factory close to Old Street in London, there were some excellent lunchtime boozing options. Like the George and Vulture, a Fullers pub. For a few pints of London Pride. Before getting back to the heavy machinery.

Oddly enough, one of my best memories, is of a Fullers beer, but not in one of their pubs. But in the Carpenter’s Arms, a real ale pub. Where one lunchtime, they had Fullers Hock in amazing condition. So good, I knocked back five pints. But it was only Mild. And the machinery wasn’t that heavy.

Next job, sweeping the floor of a bus garage in Leeds, had one pub moment: straight after we were handed our pay packets on midday Friday. Over the Kirkstall Road to the Highland Laddie. A little, lovely Tetley pub. With a more than decent pint of Mild. I gained the grudging respect of my colleagues by knocking back four pints in half an hour.

Overtime was always on offer. Two hours. Which delayed knocking off time until 18:00. Meaning that the Cardigan Arms, only a few hundred yards away, was open. For a few resuscitating pints of Mild.

Barley Wine in the 1970s

Usually, the strongest beer produced by a brewery, these beers were almost exclusively available in bottled form.

A surprising number of breweries still made these very strong beers, which had gravities over 1070º and 7% ABVnd greater. Going to over 1100º and 10% ABV.

Classic beers in this style were Bass No. 1 and Whitbread Gold Label The latter was very widely available, often even in pubs owned by rival brewers. They represented the two substyles of Barley Wine, No. 1 being of the older dark kind, while Gold Label was a modern pale version.

I was pleased to discover that I have examples from six different breweries. Which is a little under half of the breweries in the recipe section. Most of the beers are in the pale style, with only two dark examples.

There are some pretty impressive gravities in there, with Tally Ho the lowest at 1073º. The highest, no shock here, is Hardy Ale at 1124.7º. There were few beers in the world brewed at gravities as high as the stronger versions.

One of the oddities of UK brewing was that its standard beers were some of the weakest anywhere. While at the same time brewing the strongest beers in the world. It’s an unusual split.

Some of the FGs should be taken with a grain of salt, as they are racking gravities rather the true end point. Hardy Ale is a good case in point. After secondary conditioning, it fermented out a lot further.

On the other hand, the Watney FGs, which come from analyses, genuinely reflect the beer as sold. And they show a pretty high degree of attenuation: 77% and 87%. Even with a couple of unrealistically high FGs, the average of both types is over 70%.

The hopping rate per quarter (336 lbs) of malt – which takes the OG of the beer out of the equation – varies from 4 lbs to 8 lbs. Which is from slightly below average to well above. The average in 1970 being 4.9 lbs per quarter of malt.

There’s a large variation in the colour, too. But note there’s a combination of measured and calculated numbers. Watney and Whitbread being the former and all the others the latter. I suspect that Golden Pride is relatively dark on account of being parti-gyled with Bitter.

Most of the others took advantage of being single-gyled by using lager malt as their base. Eldridge Pope parti-gyled their beers and used lager malt anyway.

As all the bitterness values are my calculation, I wouldn’t take them as gospel. Most were pretty bitter by the standards of the day. Something they needed to balance out all the malt. The outlier being Tally Ho, with a bitterness level more typical of a Bitter. 

Barley Wine 1970 - 1982
Year	Brewer	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	colour	IBU
1977	Adnams	Tally Ho	1073.0	1026.0	6.22	64.38%	4.04	1.41	70	33
1971	Watney	Yorkshire Stingo	1086.4	1019.9	8.80	76.97%			110
	Average		1079.7	1023.0	7.51	70.68%	4.04	1.41	90.0	33.0
1981	Eldridge Pope	Hardy Ale	1124.7	1055.4	9.16	55.56%	7.57	3.73	48	60
1982	Eldridge Pope	Goldie	1085.3	1027.7	7.62	67.53%	5.56	2.88	26	63
1968	Fullers	Golden Pride	1090.0	1026.6	8.38	70.44%	7.51	2.57	52	57
1970	Higson	Stingo Gold	1083.7				8.12	2.71	40	56
1971	Watney	Export Gold	1079.9	1010.3	9.21	87.11%			24
1973	Whitbread	Gold Label	1101.4	1014.8	11.46	85.40%	5.48	2.34	30	49
	Average		1094.2	1027.0	9.17	73.21%	6.85	2.85	36.7	57.0
Sources:
Adnams brewing record held at the brewery.
Eldridge Pope brewing record.
Fullers brewing record held at the brewery.
Boddington brewing record held at Manchester Central Library, document number M693/405/134.
Watney Man Quality Manual
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/09/141.
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

Notes on my historic recipes

A couple of general about my recipes. Just to make everything clear.

I mostly write my recipes using original brewing records as the source. The level of detail in old brewing logs varies greatly. Some, especially the older ones, are a bit vague. Many miss out completely vital pieces of information.

How do I cope with missing information? I’ll be honest: I guess. Not just random guesses, but ones based on other sources, such as brewing manuals. Or later brewing records from the same brewery. It’s not perfect, but it’s the best that can be done.

Virtually no logs have any record of the hop additions. With the exception of some Barclay Perkins logs. All the other hop additions listed in these recipes are a guesstimate. Feel free to tinker with them as it suits you.

The ingredients, mashing details, OG and FG are always taken from the original brewing records. Except when they couldn’t be arsed to note down the FG. Which is annoyingly often.

Then there are the brewers – William Younger, I’m looking at you – when the last gravity listed is the cleansing gravity. In these cases, I make an educated guess. Sometimes based on analyses of the finished beer.

Before 1880, I assume volume quarters. Many brewing records, especially those from London, of this period list the weight. In these cases, I assume the weights from the brewing record. If they aren't specified, I assume 256 lbs per quarter for brown, amber and black malt; 336 lbs for pale and white malt.

After 1880, I assume all quarters of grain to be 336 pounds and a quarter of sugar as 224 pounds.

Care should be taken with the quantity of hops used. I reduce the original quantities, to take into account the age of the hops. But it’s all very much guesswork. When the hops were kept in a cold store, I don't reduce the quantities by as much.

Sugars are a bit of a problem. Brewers used a whole range of different sugars, many of them proprietary brands. I’m not sure if exact equivalents are available at all today, let alone to home brewers. I mostly use one of the numbered invert sugars as a substitute.

Hops are rather simpler. Where it says EK or MK, you can’t go far wrong with either Fuggles or Goldings, respectively. Plain Kent and Worcester, I interpret as Fuggles' Cluster is best for anything called American, Oregon, Californian or Pacific.

The mash temperature I give is the initial heat after the water and grains have been mixed. Whereas the sparge is the heat of the water used.

Occasionally, I use other sources for my recipes. Things like gyle books, which list all the ingredients, but no process details. Or a combination of grist percentages and beer analyses.I always state when this is the case.

All the recipes are for a volume of 5 Imperial gallons/6 US gallons/23 litres. 

Interested in brewing records? Then why not invest in a book of them? Which is exactly what my Christmas book, "Yule Logs!!!!!!!!!"

Want to make my Christmas?

If you're a professional brewer and have made one of my recipes this year, why not show your appreciation?

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Thank you.

Let's Brew - 1971 Watneys Yorkshire Stingo

This is a famous beer acquired by Watney when the took over the Yorkshire Stingo Brewery in 1907. A brewery which wasn’t, as the name implies, in Yorkshire, but on the Marylebone Road in London.

Yorkshire Stingo must have been a decent brand, as Watney was still brewing it 70-odd years later.

This has been another piece together job. The Watney Mann Quality Manual doesn’t have a full entry for Stingo. Just a list of the grist ingredients. Luckily, I have some analyses which tell me the FG and OG. The No. 2 is my substitution for something called Fermax.

That just left the hopping to guess. I used the same hopping rate as for Watneys Pale Ale, obviously scaled up for the gravity. Because of the strength, I extended the boil time to 120 minutes. And I used a combination of Fuggles and Goldings, as in many of their other beers.

Despite the guesswork, I feel it was worth putting together this recipe. 

1971 Watneys Yorkshire Stingo
pale malt	15.25 lb	84.07%
roast barley	0.05 lb	0.28%
malt extract	0.50 lb	2.76%
No. 2 invert sugar	2.25 lb	12.40%
caramel 2000 SRM	0.09 lb	0.50%
Fuggles 120 mins	3.25 oz
Goldings 120 mins	2.25 oz
OG	1086
FG	1020
ABV	8.73
Apparent attenuation	76.74%
IBU	62
SRM	21
Mash at	156º F
Sparge at	175º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	WLP023 Burton Ale

Down the pub with Andrew

I went over to Utrecht last week with Andrew. To meet Robbie Pickering for a couple of beers. I hadn't been there for ages. 2016, maybe.

The approach to the city, at least from Utrecht Centraal, is almost as awful as in its last iteration. The bridge to the dreadful shopping centre has gone. Now there's a small outdoor stretch. Before entering the maze of the dreadful shopping centre.

"Remember the route so we can find our way back." Andrew wisely advised.

But I digress. I really wanted to talk about my time down the pub with Andrew.

I started him young. While still strapped into a pushchair. I realised fully the advantage in that once he was a little older. And would regularly make a dash for freedom while my back was turned in Cafe Belgique. Often almost making it to Nieuwe Dijk before I caught him. I'm sure he would have made his own way back eventually. If he hadn't been kidnapped or something.

The nut machine, where you put in a coin and turned a knob, would usually keep him quiet for as couple of minutes. Though it could work out pricey. Depending on how desperate for peace I was. And how hungry he was.

We first visited Bavariia together just a little later. When he was six. For him: a visit to the railway museum in Nuremberg and a ride on the heritage railway in the Fränkische Schweiz. For me: well, all the lovely pubs in the Fränkische Schweiz. And Annafest.

It was my first time there. And I made the mistake of having a couple of beers before arriving. So many beers to try. And only in litre measures. I was I had Andrew to prop me up the way back down the hill. Him being so tall did come in handy sometimes. Then his fascination with trains made sure we got the right one back to Bamberg and our hotel. 

No wonder I still travel with him.